Ben NICHOLSON White Relief (multiple)  (1969)

Multiple in painted, carved hardwood after Ben Nicholson, from an edition of unknown size (we suspect it was 50, but there may not have been that many actually made), manufactured in the 1969 by the West End Engraving Company Limited, London and published by The Tate Gallery, depicting the original work White Relief (1935) in the collection of the Tate Gallery, London.

In good condition with original aluminium frame, a few very minor surface marks commensurate with age not detracting from the piece, the surface paint stable throughout. Manufacturers and publishers label to reverse. A wonderful opportunity to own this serene and beautiful, now scarce and highly collectable Ben Nicholson object, guaranteed to be a talking point in any interior.

Modern Artists such as Piet Mondrian and Alexander Calder worked together to achieve and promote an art that was abstract, synthesised with architecture and design. In defiance of the increasingly antagonistic nationalism engulfing Europe, their position was internationalist and utopian and the compositional quietude of Nicholson’s white reliefs (all produced between 1934 and 1937) provided an aesthetic model for a possible social harmony. They can also be seen as Nicholson’s zenith, representing a move away from canvas to board, and from subject to object, where the object becomes the embodiment of an idea of perfection.